With $1.2 trillion of fixed-income assets under management, BlackRock has a fundamental need for an efficient and liquid bond market. But liquidity is less plentiful as banks cope with new regulations and capital requirements. Robert Goldstein, head of technology business BlackRock Solutions, has been working toward the launch this summer of Aladdin Trading Network, which will allow users of the Aladdin investment management platform to match orders among themselves. "Our primary focus is on enhancing the Aladdin value proposition for our clients and reducing the friction costs for them and BlackRock the asset manager," explains Goldstein, 38, who has headed New Yorkbased BlackRock's $510 million-in-revenue solutions business since 2009. Lowering corporate-bond-trading costs would be "a very positive outcome. The buy side has a vested interest in collectively figuring out this problem." Meanwhile, Goldstein's unit is developing and enhancing decision-support tools for asset allocation and portfolio construction  and considering how to deliver services to retail investors as well as institutions. "There has been a blurring of lines among asset classes, and we are more and more focused on looking at the total enterprise," says Goldstein. The effort "leverages a combination of bottom-up analytics with top-down tools to do more-dynamic asset allocation, stress testing and overall risk analyses."